There are twenty million acres of lawns in North America. In their current form, these unproductive expanses of grass represent a significant financial and environmental cost. However, viewed through a different lens, they can also be seen as a tremendous source of opportunity. Access to land is a major barrier for many people who want to enter the agricultural sector, and urban and suburban yards have huge potential for would-be farmers wanting to become part of this growing movement. The Urban Farmer is a comprehensive, hands-on, practical manual to help you learn the techniques and business strategies you need to make a good living growing high-yield, high-value crops right in your own backyard (or someone else's). Major benefits include: Low capital investment and overhead costs Reduced need for expensive infrastructure Easy access to markets Growing food in the city means that fresh crops may travel only a few blocks from field to table, making this innovative approach the next logical step in the local food movement. Based on a scalable, easily reproduced business model, The Urban Farmer is your complete guide to minimizing risk and maximizing profit by using intensive production in small leased or borrowed spaces. Curtis Stone is the owner/operator of Green City Acres, a commercial urban farm growing vegetables for farmers markets, restaurants, and retail outlets. During his slower months, Curtis works as a public speaker, teacher, and consultant, sharing his story to inspire a new generation of farmers.

- Offers specific examples of success stories of faith communities involved in the faith + food movement - Engaging stories with photos in local communities and neighborhoods showing the church in action

A girl and her neighbor grow a community from their garden. Grace thinks Larry’s garden is one of the wonders of the world. In his tiny backyard, Larry grows extraordinary vegetables, with Grace as his helper. They water and weed, plant and prune, hoe and harvest. And whenever there’s a problem, Grace and Larry solve it together. Grace soon learns that Larry has big plans for the vegetables in his garden. And when the garden faces its biggest problem yet, Grace follows Larry’s example to find the perfect solution. Amazing things can grow when you tend your garden with kindness.

From the acclaimed team behind Manhattan's three-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park restaurant comes this deluxe cookbook showcasing the foods, ingredients, and culinary history of New York. After landing rave reviews for his transformation of Eleven Madison Park from a French brasserie into a fine dining restaurant, chef Daniel Humm decided to refashion Manhattan’s ultimate destination restaurant into a showcase for New York’s food artisans. Instead of looking abroad for inspiration, Humm headed to his own backyard, exploring more than fifty farms in the greater New York area and diving into the city’s rich culinary heritage as a cultural melting pot. In I Love New York, Humm and his business partner, Will Guidara, present an in-depth look at the region’s centuries-old farming traditions along with nearly 150 recipes that highlight its outstanding ingredients—from apples, celery root, and foie gras to nettles, pork, scallops, and venison. Included among these dishes designed explicitly for the home cook are reinterpretations of New York classics, like Oyster Pan Roast, Manhattan Clam Chowder, and the Bloody Mary. Lushly illustrated with photographs of the area’s dramatic landscapes and the farmers who tend the land, this unique ode introduces the concept of New York regional cuisine as it celebrates the bounty of this exceptional state.

Meet the Grogans Before there was Marley, there was a gleefully mischievous boy navigating his way through the seismic social upheaval of the 1960s. On the one side were his loving but comically traditional parents, whose expectations were clear. On the other were his neighborhood pals and all the misdeeds that followed. The more young John tried to straddle these two worlds, the more spectacularly, and hilariously, he failed. Told with Grogan's trademark humor and affection, The Longest Trip Home is the story of one son's journey into adulthood to claim his place in the world. It is a story of faith and reconciliation, breaking away and finding the way home again, and learning in the end that a family's love will triumph over its differences.

One intrepid cook's exploration of her urban terrain In this groundbreaking collection of nearly 500 wild food recipes, celebrated New York City forager, cook, kitchen gardener, and writer Marie Viljoen incorporates wild ingredients into everyday and special occasion fare. Motivated by a hunger for new flavors and working with thirty-six versatile wild plants--some increasingly found in farmers markets--she offers deliciously compelling recipes for everything from cocktails and snacks to appetizers, entr es, and desserts, as well as bakes, breads, preserves, sauces, syrups, ferments, spices, and salts. From underexplored native flavors like bayberry and spicebush to accessible ecological threats like Japanese knotweed and mugwort, Viljoen presents hundreds of recipes unprecedented in scope. They range from simple quickweed griddle cakes with American burnweed butter to sophisticated dishes like a souffl ed tomato roulade stuffed with garlic mustard, or scallops seared with sweet white clover, cattail pollen, and sweetfern butter. Viljoen makes unfamiliar ingredients familiar by treating each to a thorough culinary examination, allowing readers to grasp every plant's character and inflection. Forage, Harvest, Feast--featuring hundreds of color photographs as well as cultivation tips for plants easily grown at home--is destined to become a standard reference for any cook wanting to transform wildcrafted ingredients into exceptional dishes, spices, and drinks. Eating wild food, Viljoen reminds us, is a radical act of remembering and honoring our shared heritage. Led by a quest for exceptional flavor and ecologically sound harvesting, she tames the feral kitchen, making it recognizable and welcoming to regular cooks.

Squirrel teaches Little Groundhog how to plant and tend a vegetable garden.